Making the Most of Your Sales Presentations

Posted on October 7, 2011 by kaonsalessavant

Have you ever envisioned a sales presentation where your entire audience gives you 100% of their attention and hangs on your every word? No texting, emails or side conversations?

How about doing that without PowerPoint slides?

Engaging your audience should be one of your key objectives for every sales presentation you give. I know I strive to deliver a compelling experience in every one of my sales presentations, despite giving hundreds of them every year.

Seth Godin speaks to the issues of PowerPoint in his blog post, “Really Bad PowerPoints”, saying “Communication is about getting others to adopt your point of view, to help them understand why you’re excited (or sad, or optimistic or whatever else you are.)If all you want to do is create a file of facts and figures, then cancel the meeting and send in a report.”

What I’ve found is that these presentations are much more engaging and effective when I don’t use a Power Point slide deck. My presentations consist entirely of “showing” prospects and customers what we do – using the very same interactive solutions that we deliver to our customers for their sales & marketing! My passion and enthusiasm for interactive demonstrations and presentations is based on how well I know IT WORKS – because this is what we use for our own sales and marketing.

It’s energizing to represent a company whose solutions really do make a measurable difference in sales and marketing. Beyond the obvious “wow” factor in presenting interactive 3D virtual product demonstrations, there is real science behind why interactive product demonstrations deliver significantly better results. It’s been proven that prospects and customers truly understand your differentiation when you involve them directly in showing how your products and solutions solve real business challenges rather than merely telling them.

Now, imagine the success of your next presentation with interactive sales and marketing presentation tools…

Posted in Sales Tools | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Is everyone tired on the trade show floor?

Posted on October 4, 2011 by darlenehollywood

At a recent physician-focused trade show I couldn’t help but notice the mobile coffee carts littering the expo floor. Almost every major pharmaceutical and medical device company had an espresso, cappuccino, latté or hot chocolate to offer attendees. While baristas are no strangers to events as these, the amount of caffeinated liquid flowing at this gig could have filled the great Mississippi.

Now, to be fair, it was a doctor-attended event, and the rules regarding swag have forced exhibitors to tempt attendees with only what can be ingested. (Sorry, nothing to take back home to the kids anymore!) Only one company thought to offer cobbler to go with the caffeinated beverages, and believe me, their booth was packed.

Still, at the end of the day, does this sort of incentive to drive booth traffic really work? Admittedly, as a co-exhibitor, I was only in those neighboring booths to get my own caffeine and sugar fix. Yes, cards were swiped offering an opportunity to follow-up with prospective leads, but how qualified were they? In my case, not qualified at all. As I know, I’m not in the market for an EKG machine anytime soon.

So I ask of my fellow exhibitors, wouldn’t it make more sense to attract prospects into the booth because you had a quality product/solution to offer them (on top of the cup of joe of course)?

Posted in Marketing Guru, Trade Show Trends | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Differentiation – why isn’t it easier?

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Gavin Finn

We have the privilege of working with marketers from many of the world’s leading companies. It seems to me that it is becoming more and more difficult to develop crisp, well-understood, and accurate marketing differentiation messaging, even for market leaders. This is, in part, due to the increasingly competitive landscape, where product portfolios have become broader over time, and functional overlap has replaced distinctive capabilities. Another contributing factor is how numerous companies have expanded into multiple markets, diluting their once-unambiguous positioning.

Differentiation is the process of clearly articulating an objectively defined difference in a product, service, or company – a difference that is meaningful and valuable to the intended market. (What we may think of our differences is far less important than what our customers and prospects think.)

Do you honestly know what your clear and unequivocal differentiation is?

Posted in CEO Corner | Tagged , | Leave a comment